Leisure Concepts

Major Essay

Assignment 3

Marcus Quinn

Student ID: 110092672

Prepared for Dr. Duncan Murray

Due date: 15/06/2012 11:45pm

‘Internet pornography can not be considered as leisure; discuss this statement.’

Today throughout the world, Internet pornography has grown into a major business and is constantly growing. Based on the theory of leisure, Internet pornography is accepted and considered as a form of activity, however associates of the Catholic Church are forever arguing against the Internet pornography business based on the fact that it is sinful and immoral. The main issue associated with Internet pornography is balancing individual pleasures and freedom against the various types of social harm that can eventuate. These views explore fascinating points and can be argued either way based upon personal opinion and belief.

Research shows that participation in leisure has many benefits that can influence an individual’s psychological health, physical wellbeing, social health, economic health and spiritual health. Furthermore, all of these benefits contribute to the quality of life of an individual. Having a healthy spiritual life comes from living a healthy lifestyle and being emotionally stable. Being spiritually healthy may involve believing and following a specific religion to shape one’s morals. From a spiritual perspective, the Catholic Church condemns the pornography industry based on the grounds that it affects a person’s family, marriage and overall wellbeing. The body can create an addiction to pornography but yet the mind can generate negative thoughts and the heart can stimulate a downfall of emotions. This is a simple understanding of how an individual can be affected due to the nature of Internet pornography.

Pornography can be defined as any commercial product in the form of fictional drama designed to elicit or enhance sexual arousal (Mosher, 1988). The pornography industry nowadays utilizes the Internet to engage an intended audience throughout the world. Pornography is not a new issue in relationships: however, the expansion of the Internet appears to have increased pornography viewing and exacerbated pre-existing tendencies (Cooper, Boies, Maheu & Greenfield, 1999; Young, 2008). Yet before the Internet had become a global phenomenon Wilson and Abelson (1973) conducted a study that found 84% of men and 69% of women reported exposure to one or more of pictorial or textual modes of pornography, majority of the men and women reported being exposed to pornographic materials before the age of 21 years. With the Internet expanding at a rapid rate, these statistics would have only increased in both females and males.

Family is a major aspect of someone’s life and are responsible for supporting, caring and loving. Yet the personal use of pornography has been linked to destroying families and marriages. According to Ropelato (2006), the common age of a child to be first exposed to Internet pornography is eleven years and 90% of children aged between eight and sixteen have viewed pornography online. If a parent who frequently views pornographic material accidently exposes the material to child or a child witness’s parental conflict, negative attitudes towards the nature of human sexuality can arise.

Being an adolescent is a major time of someone’s life as they begin to develop relationships, understand what is and is not acceptable behavior and their sexual identity. Donna Rice Hughes (1998) explains certain outcomes with children that may eventuate as a result of Internet pornography. According to her study, exposure to pornography threatens to make children victims of sexual violence, may incite children to act out sexually against other children, interferes with a child’s development and identity, and shapes attitudes and values. Responsible adults endeavor to instill their children with their personal values about intimacy, love and marriage. Yet exposure to Internet pornography disrupts this critical engagement between parent and child by providing children with false and immoral values. Pornography disrupts and manipulates the personality development process as it provides incorrect information about a child’s body, sexuality and behavior. It can stimulate confusion and could ultimately change and damage a child’s development into adulthood.

Males who view pornography on the Internet are linked to significantly increased sexual intercourse with non-romantic friends (Haggstrom, Nordin 2005), which can eventuate into instances of sexual transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancy. In the United States about one in four sexually experienced teenagers acquires a sexually transmitted disease (STD) every year, resulting in three million cases of teenage STDs.

According to Schneider (2000a, 2000b), having a partner who has a pornography addiction can be very challenging and spouses often feel responsible or blame themselves for their partner’s behavior. Women can feel devastated, betrayed, and lose trust in their partner as well as losing sexual confidence when they find out their husband views pornography on the Internet. The partner who is suffering from such an addiction can ultimately push their spouse to receive counseling, and can lead to splitting up or getting a divorce. The addiction to pornography can completely destroy a husband’s sex drive for their wife and can stimulate dissatisfaction for their wife’s affection and love. This proves that pornography is responsible and is a major contributor to divorce and separation.

A 2002 survey of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers suggests that Internet porn plays a part in an increasing number of divorce cases (Douthat, 2008). This worrying trend needs attention as the expansion of pornography use is growing each day. It is clear that pornography is not new, but as the expansion of technology continues to develop in society, the Internets audience continues to grow and it remains responsible for the marked shift towards more violent and extreme explicit sexual imagery. The future is unknown for the pornography industry; worrying signs show that the trend will continue, as there has been an almost permanent growth in the business as the improvement and development of the Internet continues.

Also, Internet pornography should not be considered as leisure because it degrades women. According to Gail Dines who is an anti-pornography campaigner, ‘the prevalence of porn means that men are becoming desensitized to it, and are therefore seeking out harsher, more violent and degrading images’. This is an alarming reality as males who watch pornographic material begin to think that it is natural to treat their partners the same way the actors in the pornographic movies get treated. The physical and sexual demands increase of the partner’s spouse and the spouse may experience forms of sexual abuse. However, the Internet pornography industry makes it normal to treat women incorrectly and in a derogatory manner as immoral messages are conveyed through the mistreatment of women. Consequently, the Catholic Church and other religious groups are continuously educating children and adults to treat women as equal people and respect people for who they are. This is why the Catholic Church is forever arguing and fighting against the messages the pornography business sends.

Internet Pornography can also prove to be a catalyst of sexual violence and abuse. Material that fails to past the standards put in place by the Australian Film and Television Classification System are made available to anyone who can access the Internet (Crabbe et al, 2008). According to Yawar (2006), in an average pornography movie, 20% of the scenes were violent and 30% of the scenes contained acts of degradation. With the high amount of immoral images and degrading scenes of women in pornographic movies, it seems predictable that people who are addicted to Internet pornography will do the same derogatory actions displayed in the pornographic movies. Family and friends should monitor addicts of Internet pornography to ensure their addiction does not spiral out of control and lead to unacceptable behavior in relationships with women. Parents should continuously monitor their child’s Internet browsing and put in place barriers to prevent such filthy and disgusting material appearing.

(Lynch et al, 2006) states that Australians are the greatest consumers of online pornography in the world in terms of the proportion of the population visiting adult websites at home. Pornography can reflect and express ones’ beliefs, emotions and attitudes. Components of leisure that will be evaluated will be successful leisure market, freedom of choice, psychological and emotional benefits and enjoyment.

Having a freedom of choice is a critical component of leisure as it allows an individual to engage in any leisure activity without an external influence affected their decision. Dumazedier (1987) reinforces the point of freedom of choice by stating that ‘leisure is an activity apart from the obligations of work, family and society – to which the individual turns at will for either relaxation, diversion or broadening his experiences and social participation’.

Society needs to acknowledge and understand that men and women make the decision themselves to be involved in the adult film industry for financial assistance and to experience a sense of pleasure. People involved in the Internet pornography industry have the freedom to consume and produce pornographic material without being influenced and constricted by external parties.

According to Murray (Week 11 Leisure Concepts Lecture, 2012), ‘porn revenue is larger than all combined revenues of all professional football, baseball and basketball franchisees…US porn revenue exceeds the combined revenue of ABC, CBS AND NBC ($6.2 billion) and child pornography generates $3 billion annually. These staggering figures suggest that the pornography market is clearly legitimate all over the world. It additionally plays a major part in global economies and has previously led to the legalization of prostitution in Australia.

Leisure plays a pivotal part in our life, and some experience of leisure is essential for physical and mental health. Furthermore, leisure is positively associated with subjective well-being and wellness (Week 3 Leisure Concepts Lecture, 2012). Males who watch pornography on the Internet can relax and simply find it enjoyable. By watching such pornographic material, stress can disappear and a person can feel psychologically healthier. It is important to remember that people are allowed to spend their leisure time however they want to without influence and judgment.

According to McConvill (2006), there are figures to support the argument that the community is safer and more peaceful due to Internet pornography. The occurrence of rape in the United States has declined 85% in the past 25 years. This statistic correlates with the increased availability of pornographic materials and the reduced numbers of social violence. Addition to the freedom of choice and stress relief nature of leisure, Internet pornography can assist sexual predators by allowing them to satisfy their sexual drive through pornographic movies in contrast to innocent people.

A conclusion can be made that Internet pornography can have both benefits and disadvantages in public communities. In support of Internet pornography being considered as leisure, people have the freedom to participate and view pornographic material, people utilize the pornography as way of releasing stress and experiencing enjoyment. Research shows that pornography has a strong correlation with the decrease of rape and sexual violence in the United States. However, it is most important to see that Internet pornography should not be seen as leisure because of its immoral and disgusting nature. It can lead to serious marriage breakdowns, conveying the wrong message whilst a child is developing their sexual identity, unrealistic expectations of wives and partners, serious addiction and violence against women.

List of References
Crabbe, M & Corlett, D, (2008) ‘The Internet and the Rise of Porn’ Viewed on the World Wide Web on the 11/06/12 http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/the-internet-and-the-rise-of-porn/2008/01/02/1198949896984.html?page=fullpage
Cooper, A., Boies, S., Maheu, M., & Greenfield, D. (1999). Sexuality and the Internet: The next sexual revolution. In F. Muscarella & L. Szuchmean (Eds.), The psychological science of sexuality: A researched based approach. New York: Wiley, pp. 519-545
Donna R. Hughes (September 1998). Excerpeted in part from kids online: ‘Protecting your children in Cyberspace’, Revell. Viewed on the World Wide Web, 11/06/12 http://www.protectkids.com/effects/harms.htm#xiii
Douthat, R. (2008) Atlantic Magazine, ‘Is Pornography Adultery? It may be closer than you think’. Viewed on the World Wide Web on 07/06/12 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/10/is-pornography-adultery/6989/ Dumazedier, J. (1987), ‘Toward a society of leisure.’ Free Press, New York
Haggstrom-Nordin, E,. Hanson, U., Tyden, T., (2005). ‘Associations between pornography consumption and sexual practices among adolescents in Sweden’. International Journal of STD & AIDS, p. 104-105
Lynch, R & Veal, A.J, (2006) ‘Australian Leisure 3rd Edition’. Pearson Education Australia, French Forest, NSW
McConvill, J, (2006) ‘Pornography has its benefits.’ Online Opinion. Viewed on the World Wide Web on 14/06/12 http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=4845
Mosher, D.L. (1988). Pornography defined: Sexual involvement theory, narrative context, and goodness-of-fit. Journal of Psychological and Human Sexuality, 1, 67-85
Murray, D. (2012) University of South Australia, Leisure Concepts, Lecture Slides: Week 1 – ‘Introduction to Leisure’, Week 3 – ‘The Benefits of Leisure’, Week 11 – ‘The Dark Side of Leisure’
Ropelato, (2006), ‘Internet Pornography Statistics’ Viewed on the World Wide Web, 09/06/12 http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/internet-pornography-statistics.html
Schneider, J. (2000a). Effects of cybersex addiction on the family: Results of a survey. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, 7, 31-57
Schneider, J. (2000b). A qualitative study of cybersex participants: Gender differences, recovery issues, and implications for therapists. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, 7(4), 249-278.
Wilson, W.C., & Abelson, H.I. (1973). Experience with and attitudes toward explicit secual materials. Journal of Social Issues, 29, 19-39
Yawar, A, (2006), ‘The end of sex?’ Pornography is changing the nature of physical affection. Viewed on the World Wide Web on 12/06/12 http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=288787&rel_no=1